Date of Birth: June 16, 1949
Place of Birth: Perry, Iowa
Current Location: Elizabeth, Colorado
Born in Iowa and raised on a farm, Dennis Behn developed a love for the outdoors from an early age. He began shooting homemade bows and arrows around the age of seven, starting with small game and eventually taking his first deer with a bow at the age of 15. Since then, he has hunted big game around the world every year, including taking an elephant, cape buffalo, and hippo with archery equipment.
His passion for hunting naturally led to an interest in taxidermy. His mother often recalled that all he wanted for his 10th birthday was the JW Elwood course in taxidermy. The following year, his father took him to Omaha to visit the Elwood studio, which solidified his interest in the craft.
At the age of 14 he mounted his first whitetail deer. “I can’t attest to the quality of that first mount,” Dennis says, “but I do remember that the form I bought didn’t seem to fit very well. So I started modifying the form by cutting it up, reshaping, and then gluing the pieces back together. And it worked! The skin definitely did fit better.”
He began mounting anything he could get his hands on and even ran a small taxidermy business during his high school years. However, his father insisted that every young man needed to go to college, so he followed that path for several years.
In the fall of 1970, unable to ignore his calling any longer, Dennis announced to his father that he was heading west to Denver to seek a full-time job in taxidermy at the Jonas Brothers studio. He took six pictures of shoulder-mount deer heads as his “resume,” uncertain of his chances—but he was hired.
During his first year at Jonas, he mounted game heads and life-size mounts from around the world, finding it more fulfilling than he had ever imagined. It was also during this time that he became fascinated with sculpture. He watched Jerry Balciar, the foreman, sculpting specialty forms for in-house use and for the Jonas Bros. supply catalog. When he expressed an interest in trying it himself, Balciar told him that it wasn’t really something that could be taught—but if he was serious, he could try on his own and present the model later.
Taking this advice to heart, he researched sculpture at the library and realized that a good armature was the key to success. He shot a Corsican sheep from a game preserve, made plaster molds and an over-the-hair face mask, and gathered measurements. Using a paper form of a deer of similar size, he cut it into pieces and reshaped it using fiberglass resin and cloth. After adding clay and detail, the finished sculpture was not only accepted but was also included in the Jonas Supply catalog for sale.
When Balciar left Jonas to pursue bronze sculpture, he was offered the foreman position, which he accepted. Sculpture became a significant part of his work, and over the next six to seven years, he sculpted numerous forms for Jonas, including a life-size white rhino. As time passed, he found himself doing more sculpture than taxidermy and began exploring ways to turn sculpture into a full-time career.
The Signature Series for Jonas was his first attempt at creating income from sculpture, but when it didn’t meet his expectations, an opportunity arose to start an archery business. He partnered with his friend G. Fred Asbell to create Bighorn Bowhunting Company, building recurve bows. He left Jonas to pursue this new project but continued doing taxidermy and the Signature Series on the side.
After several years, he decided to return to his taxidermy roots and focus on sculpture. In 1984, he received a phone call from Tom Powell on behalf of McKenzie Taxidermy Supply, offering him work as a sculptor. What started as a one-year job turned into a decades-long career, spanning 40 years and thousands of forms.
He has been at the forefront of innovation in gamehead mannikins. Dennis is responsible for many “firsts” in the industry, including the first 90 degree elk form (to provide antler clearance) back in the early 70’s, the first molded-in bugling elk mouth, and the creation of the first “wall-pedestal” forms for which he coined the name.
Throughout his career, he aimed to create forms with more anatomical detail, better symmetry, and preset eyes to help production taxidermists achieve higher quality results in less time. In the mid-1990s, he developed the first Wall Pedestal mounts, which allowed more dynamic posing by having only one leg point touch the wall. The concept gained popularity, and other supply companies later developed their own versions.
Dennis also invented the pre-rotated glass eye, which allowed the rotated-eye look without needing to redrill the eye socket or reset the eyes. Masking tape was used to create the scleral band, and the eyes were adjusted to show the right amount of white by fitting an actual skin to the form.
Dennis’ taxidermy and sculpting skills have been fine-tuned and developed for 50 years, making him one of the most experienced craftsman in the industry. Dennis pursues his sculpting in the fashion of a true perfectionist. He has won numerous awards at the National and World competitions, including the first Coloman Jonas award. In addition, he continues to give seminars each year throughout the country. He is also an avid bowhunter and photographer and continues to make numerous study trips each year.
His goal from the beginning was to create better forms with more anatomical accuracy and to make the taxidermy process more efficient for others. His work left a lasting impact on both the taxidermy and sculpture industries.
Dennis also hosts a popular taxidermy blog on the internet, “Artistic Explorations with Dennis Behn”, located at https://www.taxidermy.net/behn/.
